Though Boston Celtics Hall of Fame big man Bill Russell paved the way for so many after him to use the platform as a star athlete to speak out, he did not think much of the sport’s societal impact.
“I don’t consider anything I have done as contributing to society,” said Russell in a 1963 interview with Sports Illustrated’s Gilbert Rogin.
“I consider playing professional basketball as marking time, the most shallow thing in the world,” he added for good measure, drawing a red line between what he does as a player and the bigger issues such as race and inequality that he fought against throughout his life.
“They say I owe the public this and I owe the public that. What I owe the public is the best performance I can give, period,” he offered.
Jaylen Brown opens up about his activism and ruffling feathers as a Boston Celtic https://t.co/kNmABZiirN
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) March 18, 2023
“We’re a bunch of grown men playing a child’s game,” Russell said. It’s a child’s game we’ve made into a man’s game by complicating it. Silly, isn’t it? … I’m also a silly man because I enjoy it.”
Even so, the Louisiana native believed life beyond the sport was what mattered.
“(T)he contribution I’d like to make as a person — to my kids and little Black kids all over the world — is to make life better, so their ambitions aren’t stifled when they face the world, to give them the opportunity to do what they’re most skilled at,” he explained.
“I could have a burning ambition to give my kids a million dollars. If I gave them that alone, I’d be giving them nothing.”
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